


The 16 Tapes

by StrangeGem



Category: Five Nights at Freddy's, Five Nights at Freddy's VR: Help Wanted
Genre: Gen, Spoilers for FNAF VR, The tapes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-16
Updated: 2019-06-16
Packaged: 2020-05-13 01:31:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,716
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19241104
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StrangeGem/pseuds/StrangeGem
Summary: The tape recordings from Scot Cawthon's latest instalment of the FNAF series- FNAF VR: Help Wanted.There will be spoilers (obviously).This is probably useful for those who are attempting to figure out the lore -at least, what's happened in this game.If you're wondering why I haven't added certain tags, it's because not everyone could feel that something happened a certain way.





	The 16 Tapes

Yeah, the obvious disclaimer here is that no, I am not Scot Cawthon, I am not in any way to do with the game development or design or anything.

I'm just writing down the tape recordings to help both myself and others to have a reference for what is said in each tape to try and figure out the storyline (of FNAF VR: Help Wanted) as well as figure out whereabouts, and how, it ties into the greater lore of this world.

Ok, so here goes - I have written out the content of each tape down below in the order that the tapes appear in the game (I haven't tried to change the order, due to my perceptions not being the same as your own).

Tape 1:  
"Hello, can you hear me? Don't exit this room, OK? This isn't a mistake, this room isn't a mistake. I had to hide these logs away from the core gameplay files, in a place that only a beta tester would look and in a place where the files could be protected. I just really, really, hope that the next development team finds this before the game is released to the public. This game has some kind of malicious code in it that we haven't been able to fully contain, or even understand for that matter. We're over budget and out of time. But that's not the reason that we're shutting down. Listen, I have to keep this short so the file size will be small enough to fly under the radar. There are more. They may not be in order."

Tape 2:

"I saw it for the first time today. There was a character I couldn't make out who it was, standing at the end of the hall. I thought it was just bugged out so I made a note of it and kept playing. But then it was looking in the window, and not like Chica or Bonny would. It was like it was actually looking in the window, seeing what I was doing."

Tape 3:

"I heard a pretty heated conversation this morning between Dale, our manager, and someone else on the line. It really feels like this project is in trouble in no small part because of the lawsuit I'm sure. There has to be a lawsuit. There's no way there isn't. It happened in this building just a few doors down from me. I think it's made worse by the fact that Jeremy tried to tell us something was wrong. But, as a dev team, we just saw it as a challenge to find what the problem was and fix it. Who could have known that? I have to go."

Tape 4:

"Have you ever heard of a guillotine paper slicer? It sounds made up but it's an actual piece of office equipment. I didn't even know we had one in the supply room. I guess they're more common at businesses that do a lot more graphic design work. I remember seeing one when I was still in school and even then I knew how dangerous it looked. I was always afraid of losing a finger. That seems so silly now. Jeremy used to do design work. I guess that's how he knew it was there."

Tape 5:

"The drawers have been emptied out. Someone was here. I don't think it was spring cleaning either. No, there was plastic on the floor. Someone was definitely here during the night. It had to have been the client. I mean, they sent us that stuff in the first place with no explanation, told us to scan it, said it would expedite the process so we wouldn't need to program any pathfinding ourselves. It was a budget thing I guess. It was just junk- circuit boards and things like that. Looked pretty old. Somehow though, there was usable code on some of it. It seemed to take hold by itself. Things started changing. But then, 'he' started appearing. At least, that's what Jeremy said."

Tape 6:

"I came in early that morning, no-one else was there, at least, that's what I thought. The supply room was lit. I didn't even notice Jeremy standing in the testing room as I walked past. The supply room was so bright -glowing from all the way down the hall."

Tape 7:

"Jeremy complained of nightmares when he came in this morning. He wasn't talking about it like someone telling a friend about his dreams though, he was pale, looked like he hadn't eaten in days. He spent an hour in Dale's office but it didn't look like he was given much sympathy. When he came out, he went directly back to the testing room. He doesn't even jump anymore, nothing scares him. He just stands there like he's talking to someone. Sometimes he rocks from side to side. We were told to leave him alone. I know I was in line for the testing next, they'd been prepping me for it. I guess they knew that Jeremy would need to be replaced soon."

Tape 8:

"You can always tell when a company is getting ready to fire someone. They start giving out written warnings for silly things, making sure to build a paper trail and make a case for a firing. Things that normally no-one would care about suddenly become grave offences all worthy of being written and documented. I guess it works two ways because it also encourages a person to quit rather than be scrutinised so heavily. I think Jeremy was too far gone to consider that option though. The thing about it is, that I don't think they were going to fire him because of anything he was doing wrong. They just knew he'd seen something. They needed to discredit him."

Tape 9:

"There was something that looked like a Halloween mask laying on the floor. I didn't understand. Ink must have spilled. It was only then that I heard a shuffle from the testing room and realised that Jeremy must be there. I went back and peered in the window. I couldn't see his face, he had the visor covering his head. He had ink spilled on himself as well. The front of his shirt looked black in the dark room. He turned his head in my direction but I don't think he knew I was there."

Tape 10:

"I was told I had three days to finish Jeremy's work but I know it's just passing the time. They don't really expect me to do anything. It's just to keep up appearances until the buyout is complete. We have to look like we have things under control. There's another potential development studio that wants to pick up from here. But who knows what kind of lies they're being fed to convince them to do it. Against my better judgement, I'm going to do my best to see what's here, makes notes of it and try to isolate where this thing is hiding. At least then the next person who tests this will have a chance of getting rid of it."

Tape 11:

"Today was my last day of beta testing and the anomaly that I've been seeing is nowhere to be found. But after inspecting some of the files it seems that it's attached itself to these logs, my logs, that can't be an accident. So now I have to make a choice: do I leave these logs here for you to find? or do I try to purge this thing myself by destroying the logs? I've chosen the latter. "

Tape 12:

"I can't delete them. By creating a protected area to store these logs apart from the game I effectively gave this thing a safe place to hide itself. I may not be able to delete it. But I might be able to do something else now that it's attached itself. I have an idea."

Tape 13:

"They lied to us. They lied to all of us. They told us that the whole point of this VR game was to undo the bad PR done by a rogue indie game developer who supposedly made up a bunch of crazy stories that tarnished the brand. But that's not true at all. In their haste to develop this VR game and 'clear their name' they sent us some things I don't think they intended us to see such as a hard drive containing emails between Fazbear Entertainment and a certain indie developer. Fazbear Entertainment hired the game developer. Those indie games were designed to conceal and make light of what happened. This isn't just an attempt to rebrand, it's an elaborate coverup - a campaign to discredit everything."

Tape 14:

"I ran a fragmentation program on the area that was storing these logs for you, I effectively broke the files into pieces and broke the anomaly along with it. That means that you won't have my warnings to guide you. But hopefully, it also means that this anomaly. This virus, or whatever it is, will remain broken and unable to do more damage."

Tape 15:

"Hello, you don't know me. I had created a series of logs for you documenting the troubled development of this VR game that you're now testing in hopes that you, whoever you are, and whatever team you are with will abandon development. Now I fear that those logs are being used as a trojan horse. If you are unable to abandon development, hide all traces of these logs that I've created. I fear that finding them and reassembling them will also reassemble the very thing that I have tried so desperately to destroy."

Tape 16:

"There is a way to kill it. It wants to escape, to escape through someone, someone plugged into this game. That's you now. You have to let it begin the process of leaving through you. Then use the disconnect switch that I've embedded by the main stage. Let it approach you. Let it begin to merge with you. Play the music and flip the switch. That will cause a hard restart of the game and flush the memory, effectively killing it. I hope. I don't know when it will come for you."

 

Uh, thanks for reading, and good luck theorizing.


End file.
